


Humans Don't Purr

by Casual_Scribbles



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Half-Elf Angus McDonald, Half-Elves, Purring Elves, don't worry it ends up being okay, like only a little bit, purring half-elves, taako and kravitz adopt angus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:08:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21798868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Casual_Scribbles/pseuds/Casual_Scribbles
Summary: His ears perk up and swivel as he hears a low rumble beside him. It’s soft and steady and familiar. If Taako didn’t know any better, he’d say it sounds almost like… purring? He looks down at Angus and he realizes now he can feel the vibrations in the arm he has slung over Angus's shoulders. Angus is purring. Angus, a human child, is fucking purring. Taako had thought that was just an elf thing, but maybe this plane was different than his in that way, too.-Taako learns something new about his magic boy
Relationships: Angus McDonald & Taako, Kravitz & Angus McDonald, Kravitz & Angus McDonald & Taako, Kravitz & Taako (The Adventure Zone), Kravitz/Taako (The Adventure Zone)
Comments: 24
Kudos: 564





	Humans Don't Purr

Taako sits on the couch in the house he shares with Kravitz, _Fantasy Queer Eye_ playing on the fantasy TV in front of them (it's from fucking Miller Labs, but like hell Taako's going to let a perfectly good fantasy TV go to waste). Kravitz sits on one side of him, rubbing slow circles into the back of his hand, and Taako leans against his chest.

On his other side, he is distinctly aware of Angus McDonald curled into his side.

The kid had basically followed Taako home after The Day of Story and Song. Everyone had told him he should go home and be with his family, but he begged them to let him stay. It’d taken a while and a bit of pushing before Angus had finally told Taako that he didn’t _want_ to go home. That he took on as many cases as he did so that he didn’t _have_ to go home. No one ever told Angus to go home again (Taako had informed the IPRE gang and the BoB gang that Angus already _was_ home, and then threatened them with varying levels of torture if they ever told the kid that he said that because _it’s not like he fucking cares about the kid what the fuck are you talking about Magnus stop looking at me like that no LUP SHUT THE FUCK UP_ ).

Angus is nestled snugly against Taako’s side and Taako has his arm draped across the kid's shoulders. Angus seems more relaxed than he’s ever seen him before. Who'd've thought he’d feel relaxed around _Taako_ of all people. Taako, who'd teased and poked fun at him since they met. Taako, who'd nearly blasted him with the umbra staff (but that one was really Lup's fault if anyone was counting). Taako, who'd never given Angus a real reason to trust him. But then again, the kid was smart. He’d probably seen straight through his bullshit the second he joined the Bureau of Balance. The truth was, Taako cared about Angus, despite every attempt he’d made at pushing him away. It was infuriating.

His ears perk up and swivel as he hears a low rumble beside him. It’s soft and steady and familiar. If Taako didn’t know any better, he’d say it sounds almost like… purring? He looks down at Angus and he realizes now he can feel the vibrations in the arm he has slung over Angus's shoulders. Angus is purring. Angus, a human child, is fucking purring. Taako had thought that was just an elf thing, but maybe this plane was different than his in that way, too.

“Huh,” he says and Kravitz shifts beside him. Taako meets his boyfriend’s eyes and tilts his head toward Angus. He sees Kravitz’s pointed ears prick up under his hair and he knows he hears it too. “Didn’t know humans could purr, Agnes.”

The sound stops abruptly. “Uh- I- what?” Angus blinks and sits up. Taako decides to ignore the fact that he misses Angus's warmth and weight. “What do you mean, sir?”

“You were purring, little man,”

Angus flushes and moves to push his glasses up. “I wasn’t- I didn’t mean to be- uh- I'm- I-" he slides off the couch abruptly. “I just- uh- remembered a thing I have to do for a… case. Yes. Good night, sirs.” He takes off down the hallway, his head ducked, and Taako hears his door shut with a quiet click.

“Well, that was… a thing,” he says, turning to Kravitz, who shrugs, looking thoroughly baffled.

-

Angus is quiet the next morning. He eats his cereal silently, the only sound being his spoon clinking against the side of the bowl and the rustling paper from his case notebook. Taako looks up from the stove where he's busy making french toast and frowns. This is somewhat uncharacteristic of Angus. Sure, he’d had a few times where he’d go quiet – usually, after a mission he was helping with or a case he was working on didn’t go particularly well – but Taako couldn’t figure out what'd brought this quiet on. “What'cha working on, little man?”

“Murder in Goldcliff,” Angus mumbles around his cereal.

Taako frowns. Usually, that question is enough to get Angus gushing about the case he’s working on. “Any more details you got? Come on, Agnes, gimme the juicy deets!”

There’s the sound of paper rustling behind him. “A rich politician was found dead a week or so ago. I've got the suspect list narrowed down, but I have to go back to Goldcliff to make sure. I'll be home later tonight.”

More detail, but still not as much as usual. Typically, Angus would have told him the names of the people on the suspect list, the name of the victim, the murder weapon, and any other little detail his tiny brain could come up with.

He leans back so he can see Kravitz through the door of the kitchen. Kravitz is leaning back over the couch looking concerned. He meets Taako’s eye and Taako gives him a look to say something along the lines of “ _you-know-I'm-shit-with-emotional-stuff-please-take-care-of-it_.”

Kravitz nods and pushes himself off the couch but before he can take a step Angus slides off the chair, drops his bowl in the sink, and picks up his bag. He’s out the door, mumbling something about catching his train before either Taako or Kravitz can react.

“Somethings up with him,” Taako says, ears drooping. He’s not annoyed. He’s _not_. It’s not like he cares about Angus’s emotional well-being or anything. And it defo doesn’t hurt that Angus doesn’t seem to trust him enough to tell him what’s wrong.

“Yeah…” Kravitz stares at the door, concern etched into his face. “Yeah. Did he say when he’d be back?”

“Later tonight. Didn’t get any more specific than that,”

“Mmhm,” Kravitz tugs at one of his locs. “I'll talk to him when he gets back,”

“Good call,”

-

Angus barely even greets them when he comes in at way-too-fucking-late-o'clock. He makes a beeline for his room and Taako hears the door close behind him.

He looks up from the book he was trying to read (he hadn’t turned the page in two hours and he still doesn’t remember the first sentence) and meets Kravitz’s eye.

Kravitz sighs and extracts himself from where he had been curled up on the couch with Taako. “I'll be back in a moment, love,”

Taako swivels his ears to follow the sound of Kravitz's footsteps, a soft knock, a few murmured words, and finally a door opening. More footsteps, then the door shuts and Taako is left in silence.

He still doesn’t remember the first sentence on the page.

Kravitz follows Angus into his room, the door securely shut behind them. Angus crawls back up onto his bed where his notes from the case are spread around him, scattered with highlighters and sticky notes. “What did you want to talk to me about, sir?” His voice is tense, betraying the calm, unaffected expression he holds on his face.

“That’s where I was hoping you could fill me in, Angus,” Kravitz says softly, folding his hands in front of him. He’s still getting used to this whole parenting thing, and even though he’s better with emotions than Taako is, he’s not _that_ much better. He’s spent centuries with his only social contact being the Raven Queen and necromancers. So he’s… not great… at this either. “You’ve seemed kind of… tense, since last night. We want to make sure you’re okay.”

Angus freezes and an expression passes over his face that looks similar to a deer in fantasy headlights. Then he schools his face back into a calm expression. “I'm sorry, sir, I don’t know what you mean.”

His voice trembles ever so slightly. It’s barely noticeable, but it’s there. Kravitz sighs. “You practically fled last night and this morning, you’ve been withdrawn, and you’re avoiding us.”

“I-I'm just working on the case-"

“That’s not it and we both know it, Angus,”

Angus blinks at him for a moment. And then he burst into tears.

Kravitz panics because _oh gods he’s crying what do I do_ and then he rushes over to Angus, climbs up onto the bed next to him, and pulls him into an embrace. He rubs Angus’s arms in what he hopes is a soothing gesture but he’s at a loss for what to say to make Angus feel better. What do people usually say to crying children?

Angus turns and buries his face in Kravitz’s suit, clutching him tightly as if he’s afraid Kravitz will leave. Kravitz shifts to rub circles on his back. “It’s alright, Angus, it’s alright,” he says, praying to the Raven Queen that it’s the right thing to do.

Something he’s doing seems to be working because eventually Angus’s little hiccoughs subside and he pulls back. He wipes at his eyes and folds his hands in his lap, trembling. “I'm sorry, sir. I stained your suit,” he says, his voice small.

Kravitz smiles at him, but Angus is pointedly looking down at his hands, so he doesn’t see it. “It’s alright, Angus,” he repeats. “It’s conjured, anyway,”

“Oh,”

Kravitz reaches out to touch Angus’s shoulder. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Angus fidgets for a moment and then looks up at Kravitz. “Mr. Kravitz, can you keep a secret?”

He freezes. What secret could Angus possibly be keeping that he’d be scared to tell them about? “Of course,”

Angus takes a deep breath and removes his hat, then pushes his hair back to reveal slightly pointed ears. They’re obviously not long enough to be elf ears, but too long and pointed to be human ears. So that can only mean…

“You’re a half-elf,” Kravitz says, a smile slowly widening across his face.

Angus flinches and looks nervously at the door. Kravitz grabs his hand, effectively pulling his attention back to him. He shrinks away from Kravitz, letting his hair conceal his ears again. “I'm sorry, sir, please don’t-"

“No, no, Angus, _look_!” Kravitz uses his free hand to reach up and push his locs back, showing Angus his own slightly pointed ears. He wiggles them a little and now that he knows what to look for he sees Angus's twitch in response under his hair.

Angus gapes at him. “Mr. Kravitz you’re-"

“A half-elf, too,”

“Does Mr. Taako know?”

“Yeah,”

“Does-" Angus pauses, fidgeting. “Does he care?”

Kravitz smiles gently. He understands Angus’s plight very well. Although society has improved by leaps and bounds since when he’d been alive, half-elves still aren’t always completely accepted. “No, he doesn’t care.”

Angus nods and looks at his hands. He still seems tense.

“You don’t have to tell Taako if you don’t want to. He really just wants to make sure you’re okay,”

“No, no, I want to tell him. I'm just…”

“Nervous?”

“Yes. Can you come with me?”

“Of course,”

Angus takes a deep breath, and then another, and then he pushes off the bed and pads to the door. Angus looks back to make sure Kravitz is following him – which he, of course, is – and opens the door.

Taako is still stuck on that first fucking sentence. He can’t hear what’s happing in Angus’ room and he can’t help but be anxious. Something’s up with his magic boy and he doesn’t know what it is. Was it something he did? Did he take a goof too far? He rereads the sentence for the bajillionth time but he still cannot, for the life of him, remember what it says.

The door opens behind him and he tries not to look too eager as he whips around to see down the hallway. Angus emerges with hesitant footsteps, looking over his shoulder every so often until Taako sees Kravitz following behind him.

Kravitz meets his eye and says, “Taako, it’s Angus Time,” which is how he knows it’s serious. This is important. No goofs.

It’s a thing they’d started after Story and Song. The whole team had a habit of deflecting. Everyone else’s issues were always more important than their own. Or they avoided dealing with them. Or they joked around to make it seem like it wasn’t as bad as it was. But when that wasn’t working, Lup proposed Team Time to let them deal with serious matters in a productive, helpful way. When Team Time was called on someone, everyone knew to put the goofs away and listen and _help_. So Angus Time has Taako’s full attention.

Kravitz gives Angus an encouraging nod and a pat on his shoulder and Angus steps forward. His whole body is trembling and Taako tenses. Oh, gods, it’s his fault, isn’t it? He’s done something to hurt his magic boy, hasn’t he?

“I-I have something to- to tell you, sir. And I should have told you, um, earlier, but, um,” Angus shakes his head and Taako is very worried now. His magic boy rarely ever gets tongue-tied and when he does it usually means he’s upset or scared. He watches as Angus reaches up and pushes his curls back, revealing pointed half-elf ears.

“Huh,” he blinks, “Well that explains the purring.”

Angus trembles, his eyes wide and searching for Taako’s reaction. He tries not to feel hurt that Angus was scared to tell him because he’s absolutely positively sure that it wasn’t anything personal. Probably. Maybe. It’s fucking society’s fault. Honestly, there are so many problems that would be solved super quickly if it weren’t for fucking _society_.

Taako grins at him and opens his arms. “C'm'ere, little man,”

Angus shuffles forward, hesitantly at first, and then a little quicker around the couch. He folds easily into Taako’s arms, sniffling, and Taako purrs loudly. He hears a quieter purr from Angus and he purrs harder to encourage him. He may not be great with words but this? This he can do. Comforting loved ones is literally a built-in mechanism for elves. Kravitz joins in on Angus’ other side, effectively sandwiching him between them. He hears an awkward rumble from Kravitz and he grins. Neither he nor Kravitz has purred in a long time for their own reasons, but they’re both getting used to it again. And judging from the rising volume of Angus’ purr, so is he.


End file.
